Unsettling Underground Up-ending in UK: Urbanites Ululate

From the BBC:
David in Alrewas in Staffordshire said: "The birds were flying around like it was daylight.

"It was quite severe. I experienced the Dudley one and this was more severe.

"I went outside to see if the roof had collapsed. I could see the furniture in the room moving, it was like it was on a jelly mould."

To my British friends, I hope your chimneys are in good repair and you are in good health.

So Naked

a Genoese bike race goes through the main piazza

So I've returned to this country after a year's hiatus, back to the city that I know so well from seven years of cruising its alleys...
Now no cruiser, no bike, leaves me naked. Plus the crappy hack job hand-me-down bike that my friend gave me is more trouble than good at the moment... no tools!
Crikey! I am nakeder without tools without bike!
Worse yet, I have no helmet!

Huh, enough said. I'm heading back to Alburda in May, so I'll pack the Tercedes full of goodies from my parents' place.

Just another note: according to my Italian students, the apostrophe in the service of possession follows the rule of Saxon genitive. Hey, why didn't I learn this in school? Sure would make understanding my own language easier...

A forgotten memento

From a Korean souvenir bought 8 years ago... Zen buddhist comics. Good koans, and simple drawings. Might have to add some zen to my life soon: an indoor sand mandala?

I guess there's more... teepee lights

Some chinese paper lanterns from a place on Pender today. They're on a switched extension and plugged into a light socket converter. Usually the teepee wouldn't be so lit from within, except that I adopted a halogen flood lamp and I can't resist playing with new toys.

How to Build a Teepee - Part Two

The continuation of the indoor teepee.

I decided to continue work on the teepee yesterday afternoon. The cloth needed to be cut into two big triangular pieces.

But to make the circular footprint I used a piece of string the same length as the bamboo pole I needed to cover (plus 4" or 15cm so I can tuck it under). A safety pin in the corner and a felt pen taped to the string - voila: a compass! Catherine's scissors might be a little dulled from the subsequent snipping.

The sliding-bamboo-on-hardwood-flooring problem is being mitigated (temporarily) by putting the foot of the poles in shoes I am not using. My steel toed Wellingtons and bike shoes, precisely.


A few strategic safety pins later, and the first section went up. Then, as is always the case... I had only enough fabric cut to cover half the surface... even though from my calculation half the fabric should've sufficed... Don't worry I bought extra. And I managed to cut a whole other side out of it.

Like a Big Pizza Pie!

Come potrei vi dire? Le pizze canadese non sono pizze. Poveri italiani che vogliono un fette come a casa loro... non esiste qua. Invece siamo adatti alle pizze artistiche, e qua a Vancouver abbiamo il grandissimo Zio Fatih. Da lui potremo prendere una pizza al formaggio blu e manzo, fette coperte di pollo e peperone, pizza al pesto (po' come a Genova), pizze per quelli chi piace l'aglio, le salsice, il carne o il formaggio greco; sopratutto quelli sapore e profumi: c'e la pizza alle patate.

A mi mancanno la marinara, pizza con pesto autentico, o l'altro fatto con carciofi... al fondo della piazza dell'erbe. Ero cosi viziato...

I was so spoiled in Genova. We had pizza with artichoke hearts, and soft mozzarella made from buffalo milk. Thin crusts baked in infernal wood ovens. But here! Here in Vancouver, we are so lucky: pizza with pesto, a slice with chicken and peppers, or greek feta. Better yet, we are most privileged to have something the Italians daren't do: potato pizza!

How to Build a Teepee - Part One

I am building an indoor teepee.

Don't ask why, come over and see it!

Well anyhow, how do you build a teepee?

I seem to remember the one-off fieldtrip to the bush in grade 6 or 7 when my elementary school went on Indian sensitivity training. Or if you prefer First Nations cultural learning day. Too bad we only got to go the once in my entire educational career. Anyhow, Mrs. Beaverbone showed our group how to put up a teepee. It had 4 poles I think, one for each direction, 4 more, to hold the skin more round-like and two to hold open the smoke hole.

Now, how do I reckon how much covering I should use? Apparently, the surface area of a cone can be expressed as (1/2)(s)(C) where "s" is the slant height and "C" is the circumference of the circular base. Anyhow, I had the geometry figured on scrap paper on my lunch at Home D.

To double check, I went to Mr. Google. It makes sense, circumference times height=cylinder surface. Divide it in half you have a cone. Ok, I just had to reason it in my mind.

Now, on the other hand, what about the smoke hole? Should I make the overall shape more cylindrical? Chop the top of the cone off? I think so, I have to accomodate twelve bamboo sticks lashed together.

The material is a painter's drop cloth obtained from Home D... sadly. My original intention was to use felt, about 1/4 inch thick. But I figured it would cost too much. No research went into this assumption. So anyone with info can berate my unscientific conclusion here.

Armed with my trusty Corsican penknife, je coupe la ficelle that holds the bamboo in a bundle.
There's a brilliant essay on the comfort of having a penknife in your pocket, in French, by Phillipe Delerm. I wonder if it's translated?

Some quick boy scout lashing later, and the basic tripod is set. I discovered that bamboo slides a lot on hardwood flooring, I may need to make the "feet" of my poles sticky somehow (pieces of punctured bike tubes?)
Covering a rectangular bed with a round structure is not the simplest task. I think I'll get some foam and cut my own mattress after I get paid...

GMaps Pedometer

A friend of mine showed me this sweet ass app for GMaps. Too cool. Anyhow it struck me the other day riding down to the Roundhouse Community Centre for work that the city (knuckleheads) have totally neglected the basic principle of wayfinding on the seawall: signage. There is no indication of the various streets that you pass as you ride around. I am thinking to just make em and nail em up. Why not? Shit I'll write a letter too, while I am at it. Say something about all the Olympic voyeurs going awry trying to get back to their reconditioned DTES rooming houses. Hey, if I'm going to be bitter, might as well use the O-games as a way to get my way.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

The Fluff Biography

I wonder if I'll ever actually write a biography one day that digs into my list of guilty pleasures or dresses casual instead of dressing up. Like an archaeologist enjoys understanding a people from garbage, you get to know that I enjoyed wasting two weeks one summer watching "Dead Like Me" seasons one and two back-to-back on my computer. Or that I enjoy mediocre cheese products on occasion for the salt content. I don't wear undergarments from time-to-time, and I have a cryptic sense of humour and forget punchlines. I read Jean McAuel's "Clan of the Cavebear" series and enjoyed it. My epitaph: "He sure did".